Getting started in legal translation

Workshop review

In this engaging two-hour workshop, Rebecca Porwit provided a comprehensive overview of legal translation. She started with the bigger picture, summarizing the current state of the translation industry. The growing market share of large LSPs, client embeddedness and the burgeoning impact of AI may concern some freelancers, but the good news is that legal translators are well placed to withstand such pressures, as their specialization can result in direct clients and give them an edge over AI. The latter point relates particularly to the precise knowledge and understanding needed, but potentially also to data protection requirements.

We then moved on to the real fun, the challenges of translating legal texts. The fundamental cultural differences between common law and civil law systems were a perfect starting point. Though I’d been aware of the differences, Rebecca’s insights greatly expanded my appreciation of them. That set the scene for the next category of challenges: equivalences and the lack thereof.

We touched upon the prevalence of Latin in legal texts, but possibly the sine qua non was false friends. “Jurisprudence” was interesting, the false friend in Spanish and French demonstrating that case law does exist in those countries, and that their legal systems aren’t wholly different from common law (as discussed in one of the references provided).

Participatory activities included a poll of our motivations for attending: 60% of participants felt “drawn” to the legal field, and the same number liked the idea of charging higher rates. Rebecca shared the story of how she embarked upon this somewhat unexpected career path, and said, “If I can specialize in legal texts, you certainly can!” After this excellent workshop, one suspects she could be an expert in anything she liked. In any case, whether we specialize or not, the law is a field well worth studying.

Getting started in legal translation

Review by Tom Bell